2012 Tour Divide Mountain Bike Photos

Jul 17, 2012

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Early Climbs

Ollie Whalley (left) and Craig Stappler enjoy pleasant weather on their climb out of Basin, Montana, while the majority of the Tour Divide starters had yet to reach Helena, Montana. The two had an agreeable pace that saw them ride together until Grants, New Mexico, where Stappler had to stop and improvise a repair for a broken pedal.

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Hard Roads

Canadian mountain biker Ryan Correy made it through the Helena National Forest unscathed, and in good time thanks to favorable conditions. But those who crossed this section the next day rode at a much slower pace—heavy rains had turned the dirt roads into gear-grinding swaths of mud.

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A Worthy Cause

David Goldberg pedals through central Montana hoping to complete his second Tour Divide. The rider also is shooting for a grand slam of ultra mountain biking this year: He completed the Arizona Trail 750 earlier this year, and after the Tour Divide he plans on tackling the Colorado Trail Race. Goldberg decided to enter all three races after a friend died from a mental illness, and he hopes to use the events to bring attention to the cause.

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On the Spindle

The Tour Divide can be brutal on bikes. German racer Georg Deck had to climb three muddy passes with just a spindle for a pedal after suffering a costly mechanical just outside of Lincoln, Montana. Georg limped into the bike shop in Helena, replaced the pedal, and went on to finish the Tour Divide in 17th place.

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Back for More

Just south of Butte, Montana, Dylan Taylor powers over one of the numerous small but steep hills that barely register on the course profile. The Divide veteran finished in 8th place with a time of 19 days, 9 hours and 31 minutes.

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Snow Fields

In Canada, riders faced cold temperatures and long snowy passes. But conditions improved as racers crossed into Montana and Wyoming. First place female finisher and new record holder Eszter Horanyi pushes through one of the last pile of snow as she makes her way into Wyoming on Grassy Lake Road in Teton National Park.

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Secret Weapon

Kurt Sandiforth of Beacon, New York, displays his trail-food secret while refueling at the Togwotee Lodge in Wyoming. He claims tortillas are perfect because of their caloric density to price ratio, not to mention how easy they are to store and eat. There must be something to the rationale: Sandiforth finished in 4th place.

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High Passes

Kurt Sandiforth, Adam Jensen, Garret Peltonen and Eric Schraufnagel (from left to right) steadily climb their way up Union Pass in central Wyoming’s Wind River Mountains. While daytime temperatures were pleasant, the mercury dropped to near-freezing overnight, making for a cold start the following morning.

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Running on Fumes

Ollie Whalley and Craig Stappler stopped riding just after 11 p.m. to set up their camp for the night in Routt National Forest in southern Wyoming. Most nights, the riders got a few hours of sleep. As Ollie later said, "You can get so much done in a day when you only sleep for five hours.”

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Wild Kingdom

Encountering wildlife on course is quite common, and in Wyoming being held up by livestock and cattle drives happens frequently. Fortunately, Craig and Ollie merely had to ease their pace for these sheepherders to cross the road at the Savery Stock Driveway on Wyoming Highway 70.

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Brief Moments of Respite

Dylan Taylor and Josh Shifferly enjoy the sanctuary of Aspen Alley in southern Wyoming. Just an hour earlier they had battled ridiculously strong winds that required pushing and dragging their bikes to escape the hills south of Rawlins, Wyoming.

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Babe the Blue Tandem

Last year's Tour Divide champions Caroline Soong and Kurt Refsnider returned this year on a custom Salsa tandem known as Babe The Blue Tandem. While their pace slowed on the climbs, downhill sections such as this run into northern Colorado were a real treat.

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Tough Decisions

After enduring days of nasty road rash stemming from a high-speed crash on Priest Pass in Montana, Josh Shifferly considers abandoning Tour Divide after breakfast at Brush Mountain Lodge. Bad blisters, swelling and intolerable pain in his feet ultimately kept Shifferly from finishing.

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Deep Thoughts

Eszter Horanyi takes a deep drink, and contemplates the dreaded crossing of the Gila National Forest. Before leaving Pie Town, New Mexico, she tops off her tank with a big slice of key-lime pie, a bacon cheeseburger with onion rings, a coke, and a couple glasses of water before pressing on to set a new women’s record of 19 days, 3 hours and 35 minutes.

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Dawn Patrol

At 6:30 a.m. Ollie Whalley was just 80 miles from the finish in Antelope Wells, New Mexico but had run out of water. Typically, the store in Separ is a great refueling station, but the shop was closed and nobody was on duty. Adding insult to injury, a coke machine in Hachita took his money without dispensing a soda, forcing Whalley to ride the last three hours of his Tour Divide on empty.

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